Well, as Felix is two months older than Phil, Joba is 9 months older than Phil, and Billingsley is nearly 2 years older than Phil, I’d imagine the answer to all 3 questions would be:

Not as many as are younger than Phil.

And it’s still an irrelevant standard anyway, as not all pitchers develop at the same rate, and not all pitchers that are overpowering very early in their careers stand the test of time.

As to a more relevant point, it’s true that something like 85% of the hitters have not gone further than AA, but 80% of them are still older than Phil is.

~~~I just looked through the rosters, and 121 total pitchers have been assigned to the AzFL this year. Exactly 12 are younger than Phil.~~

How many are older?

How many are younger than Joba Chamberlain? How many are older?

How many are younger than Chad Billingsley? How many are older?

How many are younger than Felix Hernandez? How many are older?

Not for nothing, but there was a post on RAB that said this:

I just looked through the rosters, and 121 total pitchers have been assigned to the AzFL this year. Exactly 12 are younger than Phil.

I don’t think Phil Hughes is in Arizona to prove anything. He’s just there to get innings.
——————
Exactly.

Hopefully hes using this time to work on his secondary pitches which were awful last yr

I don’t think Phil Hughes is in Arizona to prove anything. He’s just there to get innings. I believe that’s the same reason why Humberto Sanchez and Kevin Whelan and Jeff Marquez are there as well.

All of them spent time on the DL and need innings.

Let’s keep that last paragraph in mind for the inevitable shaky AFL outing, and not immediately assume the end is near for Hughes.

I’ll think about a bet for Hughes…let’s see how he gets through the winter and the first few weeks of camp next year…before I promise anything.

Thanks for the heads-up about FJM

You should make Hughes your 2009 “bet” like your Jason Giambi one.

BTW, you kind of got mentioned (and somewhat insulted) on FireJoeMorgan if you didn’t know. (See the October 10th entry.)